If this doesn’t terrify you, it should

I've traveled around a lot over the past 20 years.  I've visited  over two dozen foreign countries and lived for two years in one of those.  And what I've come to realize is that there are a lot of people with a lot more education who work a lot harder than I do, for far less.  And the main reason I'm so much better off than so many of my counterparts is just simply due to the supremacy of the US Dollar.  Could that be about to change?  When I was in Switzerland just before Thanksgiving last year, 1 Swiss Franc could be bought for one USD.  Today that same dollar only buys 90 cents of that Franc.  And the comparison to many other foreign currencies like the Euro is similar.  Sure, the value of the dollar fluctuates up and down in comparison to other currencies all the time.  I get that.  But now it feels different.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3950467-is-there-a-worldwide-run-on-the-bank-of-the-united-states-of-america/

It's been said that, any time you see a shocking headline posed as a question, 90% of the time the answer is "No."

Oh, and look, this is an opinion piece. Not only is it an opinion, but it was submitted by an "Opinion Contributor". That's net-journalism speak for "A rando who is unaffiliated with our organization but provides content to have things to constantly update online."

The article is full of, "Many believe that..." Which is meaningless. Many believe that Elvis was abducted by aliens.

The semi-objective points he makes about other national leaders "hedging their bets" by... gasp... TALKING WITH NATIONS OTHER THAN THE U.S.! Yeah... that's... normal and smart foreign policy.

When I went to brewing school in Germany, the Euro was worth about 1.3x the USD. Now they're about equal. If the USD slips to $1.10 :: 1 euro... it's still stronger than it used to be.

The USD is not crumbling. Currencies from other regions that were hit harder by covid problems are just recovering.

Been going on for a while now.

China settled it's first trade for LNG in yuan last month.

People in the west are squabbling over petty crap while not paying attention to what is going on globally. 

Beer Baron said:

The article is full of, "Many believe that..." Which is meaningless. Many believe that Elvis was abducted by aliens.

Elvis was not abducted by aliens. Elvis was an alien who is not only still alive, but he is coming back to lead our country out of the upcoming recession and replace that godawful Hip Hop music and all those Taylor Swift "I dumped my boyfriend" ballads  with some real kick ass rock and roll! Elvis is everywhere. Elvis is everything. Elvis will fix inflation and stabilize the value of the dollar. No need to worry. Elvis knows what to do. Hail Elvis! The new leader of the Sixth Reich!!

Michael J. Fox has no Elvis in him...

Remember When $1.20 Canadian dollars got one US dollar? Yup, Canada is still there. Canadians, as a whole, aren't losing there minds.

Appleseed said:

Remember When $1.20 Canadian dollars got one US dollar? Yup, Canada is still there. Canadians, as a whole, aren't losing there minds.

I dressed up really nice to go to a wedding around this time, headed out for drinks afterwards and had a stunning young lady who I did not know say to me point blank "you look like a million dollars..." as I started to swell up as the endomorphins kicked in she added "...well a million Canadian dollars".  I still had to laugh.

There is no crumbling.  The S-franc going from $1 to 90 cents is a three-times-a-week occurrence.  The last time I was in Switzerland was 1999.  A $2 happy meal here cost me $13 and change over there.  One of our crew hit relatively big on the slots in Interlaken and offered to buy us a round at the bar... which wiped out everything she had just won.  I've been to Canada when $1 usd would buy $1.75 cdn, and I've also been there when that same dollar got you $0.89 cdn.

There really isn't anything to it.  The USD fluctuates daily against other currencies.  Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down.  The real thing you are going to feel is our inflation on our OWN dollar.

What Curtis said.  For a time I traveled to Denmark on a monthly basis over a period of 5 years.  The only constant was the exchange rate was never the same twice, even month to month.

In for more Mojo Nixon...

bludroptop said:

In for more Mojo Nixon...

OK...

...and berk Martha Stewart. 

If you ain't got Mojo Nixon, then this thread needs some fixin'!

Have you ever really thought of what a dollar is? It's just a piece of paper promising that the government will give you a dollar worth of something for it. It's not a dollar's worth of gold, and there's no guarantee that they ever have to pay up. It's just an IOU from a government so in debt that my unborn great grandchildren already have debt to pay on it.

There's one thing Rick definitely got right...

Currency doesn't terrify me. Concerns me, yes. Nuclear annihilation scares the bejeesus out of me. And we seem to be barrel-assing towards it.

I don't have any fear of nuclear annihilation, that scare tactic is about the only effective weapon left in a slowly dying regime.

      ...The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself ...

There are a number of serious concerns with the US Dollar, it makes it the worst currency to use in the world... except for every other currency.

So, this article is talking about the fall of the dollar and never once mentions BRICS.  I would call that a pretty big fail right there.

The acronym began as a somewhat optimistic term to describe what were the world's fastest-growing economies at the time. But now the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — are setting themselves up as an alternative to existing international financial and political forums.

I believe they are also trying to (want to?) create their own currency for trading.

https://www.dw.com/en/a-new-world-order-brics-nations-offer-alternative-to-west/a-65124269

Nope. Not terrified. Not in the least. 

ShawnG nailed my concern. Saudi Arabia is now taking the yuan for oil trades. All of the countries that China is propping up will be falling in line with Chinas demands soon. 
Unfortunately, the days of the dollar being the favored world currency are numbered.
In years, not decades.

In reply to 67LS1 :

America hasn't seen the level of interference from China that Canada has.

Beware.

67LS1 said:

ShawnG nailed my concern. Saudi Arabia is now taking the yuan for oil trades. All of the countries that China is propping up will be falling in line with Chinas demands soon. 
Unfortunately, the days of the dollar being the favored world currency are numbered.
In years, not decades.

I would be a lot more concerned if I was one of those guys commuting to work in a Sooper Doody F-150. 

For a flight from the USD there needs to be a better alternative. Pound? Yuan? yen? Nope. 

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

Dogecoin!

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

67LS1 said:

ShawnG nailed my concern. Saudi Arabia is now taking the yuan for oil trades. All of the countries that China is propping up will be falling in line with Chinas demands soon. 
Unfortunately, the days of the dollar being the favored world currency are numbered.
In years, not decades.

I would be a lot more concerned if I was one of those guys commuting to work in a Sooper Doody F-150. 

I wouldn't since it would be a crazy rare truck and worth a fortune. 

67LS1 said:

ShawnG nailed my concern. Saudi Arabia is now taking the yuan for oil trades. All of the countries that China is propping up will be falling in line with Chinas demands soon. 
Unfortunately, the days of the dollar being the favored world currency are numbered.
In years, not decades.

And this is my concern.  I fully get that the USD constantly fluctuates against other currencies.  But it sure seems like it has moved A LOT in a very short amount of time.  This and the fact that China and Saudi are clicking up with a lot of our not necessarily friends, makes it feel like a new paradigm is setting up.  One that might not be too friendly to middle class Americans such as myself.

In my experience the worst thing is quick financial decisions.  The dollar gets threatened but in time it is still the best.  So many currencies are set in value by the gov't, and while some may say the USD is also manipulated the system seems to contradict this theory.  So I will hang tough.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

There is no crumbling.  The S-franc going from $1 to 90 cents is a three-times-a-week occurrence.  The last time I was in Switzerland was 1999.  A $2 happy meal here cost me $13 and change over there.  One of our crew hit relatively big on the slots in Interlaken and offered to buy us a round at the bar... which wiped out everything she had just won.  I've been to Canada when $1 usd would buy $1.75 cdn, and I've also been there when that same dollar got you $0.89 cdn.

There really isn't anything to it.  The USD fluctuates daily against other currencies.  Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down.  The real thing you are going to feel is our inflation on our OWN dollar.

https://www.outkick.com/a-mcdonalds-big-mac-meal-costs-18-in-connecticut/